Attempted Comfort
by snowball3
Summary: It is Shuichi's turn to take care of Yuki, but things don't go quite as he plans.


a/n: While this is not a direct sequel to my short story Cold Comfort, it follows the same line.

Yuki stretched his arms over his head trying to get the stiffness out that came from sitting in one place for to long. He was trying to get his current book finished before his upcoming deadline caught up to him, but he was not having much luck getting his current chapter written. He had spent the night trying to write with Shuichi sleeping in his lap, but after about an hour of trying to type around Shuichi he had given up and taken him to bed. He would have gone back to working on the chapter, but Shuichi had decided to hang on to him so he had given up on getting any more work done and had joined Shuichi in bed. The following morning Shuichi had felt quite a bit better and K had forced him to go into work. Now Yuki was stuck trying to recapture the idea that he had had last night before Shuichi had interrupted him, but to his annoyance he had lost that train of thought. After a while of staring at the screen Yuki gave up and decided to go get some breakfast. Hopefully some food and exercise would help him get back into the mood to write, Yuki thought to himself as he put his shoes on and grabbed his coat.

When he got outside he found the sky growing dark with an impending storm. Yuki thought about driving instead of walking but after a minute of thinking he figured that it wouldn't take him to long to walk to the bakery that was close to his apartment. As he walked along the street he looked around at the people he passed trying to get an idea on where to go with his current chapter. He had already written the first couple of chapters and had turned them in to his editor, but he still had about sixteen more chapters to write before he meet the quota that had been set down for him. The book was one of the typical kinds of books that he liked to write, but he was looking for something different from the usual angst and drama. He knew that drama was what most high school girls and middle-aged women were looking for so he was trying to figure out away to put that in the story without turning it completely into an angst ridden novel.

By the time that he got to the bakery he still had not thought of a good way to start the chapter and it had started to sprinkle. He pulled the door to the bakery opened and walked into the warm pleasant smelling building.

The young woman behind the counter looked up from the book that she was reading and turned bright red when she saw whom it was. She quickly put the book under the counter and greeted Yuki.

"Hello, Mr. Yuki," she said with an overly cheerful smile on her face, "will you be getting your usual today?" she asked as she stood waiting for his order.

Yuki nodded his head to her question as he looked over the various sweets that were put out in the cooler. "Yes, I would like some strawberry short cakes," he replied as he thought about whether to get Shuichi anything. Usually he didn't even think about getting anything for Shuichi, but after the way he had been feeling yesterday Yuki felt like being nice to him.

After he ordered something for Shuichi, he paid for the treats and turned to walk out the door. Yuki gave a small shudder when he noticed that instead of a gentle rain it had become a downpour. He didn't want to walk in that mess, but as he thought about whether to wait it out or to try and walk home in it, the sales girl behind him reminded him of her presence.

"Sir, it would probably be best if you wait here until the storm passes over," she said her tone of voice telling him that she wouldn't mind it at all if he had to wait. She had a lot of questions she wanted to ask him about Shuichi and she figured that if he would stay until the storm let up he might get in the mood to talk to her. Usually when he came in he gave only the minimum respond to her questions and left as soon as his order was filled.

"Thank you, but I don't mind walking in this kind of weather," Yuki said as he pushed the door opened. He knew it was foolish to walk in the kind of storm that was brewing, but he was not in the mood to put up with the usual nosy questions he had to endure about his relationship with Shuichi. As he walked through the rain he hoped he had not been stupid when he decided that it would be a good idea to walk instead of wait. By the time he got back to his apartment the rain had slacked off considerably and he was completely soaked.

When he got up to his apartment he had already started sneezing and shivering. He pulled the paper bag out of his jacket and took off his shoes before he went to the kitchen to put the food in the fridge. After he completed that, Yuki went back to the bedroom he sometimes shared with Shuichi to get some dry clothes. As he gathered up the necessary items he noticed a note on the night stand that he had missed when he woke up that morning. The first thing he saw on the paper was Shuichi's usual messy scrawl and what looked like remnants of the breakfast that Shuichi must have eaten before he left for work. The only thing that Yuki could make out under the stains was Shuichi thanking him for taking care of him the night before and Shuichi's over excited note of love to him. Yuki knew that having eight exclamations points after the words I love you were a bit much, but Yuki lovingly folded the note and found the box that he kept hidden in the bottom of the closet. At first Yuki had just thrown the notes that he got from Shuichi away, but for reasons he could not explain, he started saving them. He always made sure though Shuichi never found the box. Yuki knew that if it ever became public knowledge that he kept notes from his lover he would never hear the end of it.

After putting the box back in the closet Yuki walked into the bathroom to take a shower hoping that the warm water would do something about the pounding in his head. As he put the things he had gathered down on the stool set out for that very purpose Yuki felt the room start spinning and he grabbed a hold of the counter trying to keep from falling over. When the dizziness passed Yuki hurried up and got into the shower, he knew that if he didn't lay down soon he might not make it back to his bed. By the time he got done with his shower he was so tired he felt like falling asleep on his feet. He climbed into his night clothes and headed back into his bedroom hoping that he felt better before Shuichi got home. Shuichi was hard enough to deal with when he was feeling alright, but when he was sick he just wanted to kill him.

Shuichi had been having a pretty good day at work despite how sick he had been the night before. At lunch time he had tried calling Yuki to let him know how he was doing, but there was no answer so he decided to try again later. He knew that if Yuki was typing it would take a fire to get him a way from his computer and even then Shuichi figured Yuki would probably be trying to finish the paragraph while he was running out the door. Shuichi knew that Yuki had to have been in a weird mood last night to take his lover over the story he was working on.

As soon as K said that they were done for the day, Shuichi grabbed his bag and hollered bye to everyone as he hurried out the door. He wanted to get home and see how Yuki was doing. Shuichi had tried several more time during the day to call Yuki but every time there was no answer. When he got back to the apartment he knew that something was wrong as soon as he walked through the door because he did not hear the usual sounds of clacking keys. Shuichi knew that Yuki could have gone for a walk or something but there seemed to be a eerie silence hanging over the apartment. Shuichi called out Yuki's name, but there was no answer so he decided to go looking for him. As he looked in each room and still saw no sign of Yuki he grew increasingly worried. After looking in every room at least twice he finally noticed something laying on the bedroom floor.

Shuichi started in surprise as he recognized Yuki's blond hair sticking out from a pile of blankets on the floor.

"Yuki, what are you doing down there?" Shuichi asked as he leaned over to try and get a look at Yuki's face from where it was buried in the covers. From what he could see of Yuki's face he appeared to be pretty red in the face. At first Shuichi thought it was because Yuki had it so hot it the room, then he remembered that he had been sick the night before and maybe he had passed on whatever he had had to Yuki.

Yuki pulled the blanket down far enough to glare at Shuichi with one blood shot eye. "I'm down here because the bed was too soft for me," Yuki snapped in a muffled voice because he had refused to pull the blanket down any more than he had. Really the only reason he was on the floor was because he had been trying to get to the phone the first time it had rang, but the reaching had proved to much for his fever wracked body.

Shuichi frowned at him, "Really, that is the first time that I've ever heard of that. Usually when I complain of it being too soft you tell me to shut up because you like a really soft bed."

Yuki gave Shuichi a look that promised a very painful beating when he got to feeling better. "I see sarcasm is still lost on you," Yuki sighed as he made to pull the blanket back over his head.

Shuichi prevented him from hiding back under the covers by reaching out and putting his knee on it. "What do you mean?" Shuichi asked as he reached out to feel Yuki's forehead. For a minute Yuki looked like he was seriously considering biting Shuichi before he pulled his head out of Shuichi's reach.

"I mean that even to an idiot it should be obvious that the only reason I'm down here is because I lack the strength to get back up on the bed by myself," Yuki snapped as he shifted on the hard floor.

"Oh, well you could have just said so and I would have help you back up on the bed," Shuichi said as Yuki's tone and words passed right over his head.

Yuki thought about just banging his head against the floor. Maybe if he knocked himself out he could sleep through Shuichi's stupidity and get some much-needed rest. The feeling of the blankets being tugged on brought him out of his thoughts. He realized that Shuichi was trying to help him get back on the bed. After a couple of minutes of Yuki cussing and Shuichi trying not to hurt Yuki, they managed to get him back up on the bed.

"Do you need anything, Yuki?" Shuichi asked as he helped Yuki rearrange the covers around himself.

Yuki nodded, "Yeah, some really strong pain pills," he said as he shivered and pulled the blankets tighter around himself. He had turned the heater up as high as it would go but it still seemed like it was too cold.

Shuichi frowned, "Are you sure that is such a good idea?" Shuichi asked as he started pulling his clothes off.

"What in the world are you doing?" Yuki asked as he watched the strip show going on in front of him. If he had not been feeling so bad he would have pulled Shuichi on the bed with him, but the way his head was pounding and his stomach felt like it was trying to come out of his throat he knew it would be a bad idea.

Shuichi paused in pulling his pants off to look at Yuki, "Well, you have it so hot in here I figured I would feel better with less clothes," he replied as he finished what he had been doing. Yuki heaved a sigh, as usual Shuichi had no idea of the effect that he had on him. Yuki had to admit to himself that it was probably a good thing that Shuichi didn't know because if he did he would know how to get Yuki to do what ever he wanted him to do.

"Now, are you hungry?" Shuichi asked as he tossed his clothes in the general direction of the clothes hamper.

Yuki turned green at the thought of Shuichi cooking him any food. "No, I ate something earlier," Yuki replied as he turned on his side facing away from Shuichi.

"How did you manage to get some food when you couldn't even get back into bed by yourself?" Shuichi asked as he put his hands on his hips. Yuki growled softly to himself, all he wanted to do was to go to sleep and dream of a warm sunny beach, but Shuichi couldn't seem to get the hint.

"Just forget about it and go away," Yuki growled as he tried to bury himself farther into the blankets.

Shuichi shook his head, "No, I won't forget about it," he said a he sat down on the side of the bed to try and get a feel of Yuki's forehead. He wasn't a doctor and he didn't know much about caring for a sick person but he didn't want to do nothing while Yuki laid there and suffered.

"I'll eat something later when I'm feeling better," Yuki informed him trying to get away from Shuichi's reaching hand. He was hurting so much from whatever was wrong with him, that the slightest touch was too painful.

"You need to eat something right now. I don't know much about sickness, but when I was little my mom made me drink lots of liquids and eat soup until I was better," Shuichi informed him as he gave up on trying to get Yuki's temperature. Shuichi sat and thought for a moment while Yuki watched him with some trepidation. Yuki knew that when Shuichi thought it did not bode well for him.

"I know, I can make you some soup," Shuichi said as he stood up from the bed and turned toward the door.

"Do what ever you want," Yuki said as he tried to get back to sleep. After a few minutes of silence Yuki opened his eyes to see if Shuichi was still in the room, but all he saw was an empty room. He gave a sigh of relief, may be Shuichi had gotten the hint and went to Hiro's place. Just as he felt the familiar feeling of sleep pulling him under he heard a loud crash coming from the kitchen and Shuichi yelling about something burning him. Yuki groaned as he realized that Shuichi was going through with his threat. After a few moments of silence Yuki began to think that Shuichi had some how managed to kill himself when he smelled the familiar smell of something burning.

Yuki wondered why it seemed that something was out to get him; all he wanted to do was to sleep through whatever was wrong with him. He struggled to the side of the bed so he could get up and go see if Shuichi was trying to burn the apartment down. Just as he managed to get up out of the bed Shuichi came bursting through the bedroom door carrying a steaming bowl of something Yuki didn't even want to go near. There was an ominous smell coming from the bowl and Shuichi was holding it away from like he was afraid that whatever was in the bowl was going to jump out and bite him.

Shuichi gave Yuki a bright smile as he sat the bowl down on the bedside table and in the process he kicked the phone that had been forgotten on the floor. Shuichi looked down to see what he had kick and when he saw the phone laying on the floor he gave Yuki a questioning look.

"Is this the reason that you were laying on the floor?" Shuichi asked as he bent down to pick the phone up off the floor.

Yuki shook his head in denial, he knew he was being ridiculous but for some reason he didn't want to tell Shuichi that he had been trying to pick up the phone.

Shuichi gave a soft smile despite the negative response from Yuki, "You knew that is was me calling to check on you, didn't you?" Shuichi asked as he looked down at the caller id. They had the phone sat up where Yuki could see who was calling, so he didn't have to answer it if it was someone that he didn't want to talk to. They had reporters calling them all the time asking questions, despite how many times they had tried to keep their number from the public.

Yuki heaved a defeated sigh, he knew that auguring was going to get him no where. While Shuichi was not the smartest person in the world, ever he could read. "Yeah, so what if I was trying to answer the phone. The way my head feels right now I did not want to have to listen to that annoying ringing any more than I had to."

"Well, I'm home now so you won't have to worry about the phone ringing anymore than it has too," Shuichi said as he sat the phone back in it's usual place.

Yuki looked at him for a moment before he said, "Just turn the ringer off, so neither one of us has to worry about. I would have done it earlier, but as you saw I was a little indisposed."

Shuichi gave an embarrassed laugh as he moved to do what Yuki said. "I would have thought about that eventually," Shuichi said. They would keep it off all the time if they could, but it didn't make any sense to do that because Shuichi's mom didn't like calling his cell phone and Shuichi had a bad habit of leaving his phone anywhere he happened to be for more than a few hours.

"Now that the phone is taken care of why don't you try the soup I made for you," Shuichi said as he picked the bowl back up off of the night stand.

Yuki gave him a disgusted look as he tried to move back away from the bowl, but the pillows kept impeding his movements. "What in the world do you have in there?" he asked.

When Shuichi had to think about it for a minute Yuki knew that he had some how get the bowl away from him before he really did some damage to him.

"Well, I was going to try and make you some chicken noodle soup because that is what they gave to me when I got sick in America. All I could find was some chicken and some noodles, so I tried to make do with what we have on hand."

"I know that they think chicken noodle soup is a cure all in America, but they get that from a can most of the time, and the way that you cook you have no hope of making it the same way that they do. Another thing is that stuff that you made smells like something that crawled in off of the streets."

Shuichi gave him a hurt look as he looked down at the bowl in his hand, "I know that I can't cook very well, but I wanted to do something for you after the way that you took care of me last night," Shuichi said as he turned to carry the bowl back to the kitchen.

Yuki frowned as he looked at the dejected slump of Shuichi's shoulders, usually he would just let it go and let Shuichi get over it, but after everything that had happened over the last couple of days he felt that he needed to say something to Shuichi.

"Wait, Shuichi," Yuki called out when Shuichi stopped and turned face him he continued, "I appreciate the thought but my system is not up to fight off anything that you make for me, so just go dump that bowl out and call for some take out."

Shuichi face brightened a little bit. Although it wasn't an apology Shuichi knew that was a good of one as he was going to get from Yuki. Usually when they ordered anything Yuki did it for them because he did not trust Shuichi's judgment. By telling Shuichi to do the ordering Yuki was letting him take care of him for a change.

"Right, I'll do that after I get this taken care of," Shuichi told him as he moved to do exactly that.

As Yuki watched him leave the room he felt a curious warmth in his chest, but he brushed it off as the fever messing with him. Yuki feel into a light doze as he waited for Shuichi to come back with the food, so he woke up with a start when he heard footsteps approaching the bed. When he opened his eyes he found Shuichi staring down at him, and then the smell of the food hit his nose and he felt his stomach heave. Shuichi quickly grabbed the bowl that he had brought in for the purpose and put it underneath Yuki's head, but Yuki pushed it away.

"Yuki, are you alright?" Shuichi asked in concern as he hugged the bowl to his chest.

Yuki swallowed a few times as he fought to keep everything in its place. After a few minutes he was able to give Shuichi a response. "I'm fine, the smell just surprised me for a minute," he rasped as he motioned for Shuichi to give him a glass of water. Shuichi filled the cup that was waiting by the bed and handed it to Yuki. Shuichi had not thought about bringing any water in with him, but Yuki liked to keep a jug of water by the bed just in case he woke up in the middle of the night and needed something to drink. As Shuichi watched him drink, he stood by with the bowl just waiting for Yuki to get sick again, but he managed to keep the water down and he seemed to be feeling better after he drink it.

"Do you think you can eat now?" Shuichi asked as he sat the bowl and glass back down on the table.

Yuki nodded, "Yeah, I can try," he said as he struggled to sit up in the bed. Shuichi moved to help him, and Yuki had to stop himself from pushing Shuichi away. He didn't like asking for help, but he knew that the way his body was shaking he would never be able to sit up on his own. After a few minutes of fussing with the pillows making sure that Yuki was comfortable, Shuichi picked up the box of rice and brought to Yuki. He had picked the blandest item on the menu hoping that Yuki would be able to keep it down. When he tried to feed Yuki, he glared at him and snatched the box away from him. While Yuki was able to swallow his pride and let Shuichi help him with pillows, he refused to be feed like some baby.

Shuichi watched anxiously as Yuki shakily feed himself, but when he saw that Yuki could handle it on his own he relaxed and started eating his own food. They sat and ate for a few minutes in silence before Yuki pushed his box at Shuichi.

Yuki had eaten as much as he dared and he felt that if he ate anymore he really would lose everything in his stomach.

"Are you done, Yuki?" Shuichi asked as he put his own food to the side so that he could take the box from Yuki.

"Yeah," Yuki replied as he scooted back down into the bed. What little strength he had managed to get from his nap had been drained, and all he wanted to do now was try and get some more sleep.

"Well, if you're sure I'll go put this stuff up and be back in a minute," Shuichi said as he gathered up the half empty boxes and used silverware.

Yuki just nodded to let Shuichi know that he had heard him. By now his headache had abated somewhat with the food and water, but he still felt like he was going to get sick. As he listened to Shuichi moving around the apartment he let himself slide off into sleep.

When he felt the bed dip under Shuichi's weight, he opened his eyed to see what his lover was doing.

Shuichi gave him a sheepish smile as he kicked off his shoes and pulled off his socks, "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up," he said as he pulled back the covers and made to get into the bed with Yuki.

Yuki blinked sleepily for a few minutes as he looked out the window trying to judge what time it was. When he saw the it was still fairly light outside he looked at Shuichi in confusion, "What are you doing?" Yuki asked after he cleared the sleep from his voice.

"I'm getting into bed with you," Shuichi replied as he paused in removing his pants. He had forgotten to remove them before he got into the bed, so he decided that instead of getting up again he would just remove them while he was laying down. Shuichi just didn't realize how hard it would be, while trying not to shake the bed to much so that he didn't make Yuki sick again.

The writer tried to get his tired brain to wrap around Shuichi's comment, "I know that you are getting into bed with me, but what I don't know is why. It's still light outside and I know that you usually don't go to bed until way pass a reasonable hour."

Shuichi thought for a minute before he replied, "Well, it felt so nice having you next to me last night and keeping me warm that I wanted to return the favor," Shuichi told him as he laid down and turned to face Yuki.

Yuki thought about that for a minute before he decided that Shuichi had a point. In just the little bit of time that Shuichi had been in bed with him Yuki could feel his warmth warming up his cold flesh.

"Fine," Yuki said as he resettled himself, "just don't think that this changes anything when I get to feeling better."

Shuichi gave a knowing smile as he scooted closer to Yuki, "Don't worry, I won't make any assumptions about you."

Yuki instinctively move closer to the warmth at his back as he let a small smile out. After a few minutes of laying there in silence Shuichi rolled over onto his back and Yuki followed him. Shuichi started in surprise as he felt Yuki's weight settle on his chest. He looked down to see if Yuki was awake and he saw that his eyes were closed in sleep. As Yuki shifted lower on his chest Shuichi tired to stay still so that he wouldn't wake Yuki up and when Yuki finally settled he saw that he had put his ear over where his heart beat was at. He had put some medicine in the food that he had given to Yuki because he knew that Yuki wouldn't have taken it otherwise. Shuichi was planning on telling him when they next woke up, but for now he was going to enjoy the time he had with him before he had to go sleep back on the couch where he usually found himself on the nights that Yuki actually came to bed.

After a few minutes of quiet Yuki started shifting around restlessly, and Shuichi tried to think of away to get him back to sleep without waking him up completely. After a minute of thinking Shuichi remembered what his mother used to do for him and his sister. He tried to remember the words to the lullaby that his mother had sang to him. When he got the tune and the words down in his head Shuichi started singing to Yuki hoping that it would help him a little bit. At first Shuichi thought Yuki was going to wake up and start yelling at him to be quite, but he just snuggled closer and mumbled for him to stroke his hair. Shuichi looked down at him in surprise but moved his hand to do as Yuki had asked. Yuki gave a contented sigh and snuggled down farther into Shuichi's chest. As he lay there stroking his lover's hair and feeling the fever hot skin against his own, he savored the feeling of peace that had settled between them. Shuichi knew that as soon as Yuki was feeling better he would be kicked back to the couch, but right now he was going to enjoy the time that he had with him.


End file.
